Beach Sweepers/Surf Rakes

[werewolf]

Do these machines pick up the coins too?

Was wondering if it was worth detecting after one of these beasts had done it's job. I tried a freshly raked beach a few days back and signals were few and far between - just bad luck or the rake swallows everything??

 

[lazyaussie]

Apparently they don't pick up coins or rings but they"ed get the chains & watches.

 

[werewolf]

Just did some on-line research. Apparantley the latest sweepers can pick up items as small as cigarette butts!

Check these out.....

http://www.jetcoengineering.com.au/surfhow.html

Bye bye coins!

 

[Mat in MA]

[size=medium]Don't get too bummed out about not getting coins. I would say that 90% of beaches use the rake machines. They will only pick up large items and make the beach look nice.

The newer machines with the belts and screens just too costly for towns to absorb unless they are in a richer tourist area all year long. I wouldn't worry about not getting much at the beach. Even if the beach was cleaned people still drop stuff. You will still find plenty of coins and jewelry. Good Luck and Happy Hunting!!!

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

I would guess that those mechanical type would have a hard time getting the coins as the coin could flip edge ways and elude the pickup mechanism.

 

[MikeDahms]

Answer your own question, go and detect behind them. Few operators dig deep with these machines because it slows down the process. Their aim is to remove the surface trash. I know for certain some of these machines do pick up rings and coins. I knew one of the guys who operated a beach sweeper during the 80's in Hawaii. If I were you I would volunteer to take home all the "trash" that comes out of those machines. In fact if you can find where they dump the trash I would pick it up. The guy I knew made his machine dig down deep as it would go and he would take home stuff he picked up with his machine. At home he had a bench set up with the top of the bench made of hardware cloth, with quarter inch holes. He dumped the material from the beach sweeper on to the bench and was able to quickly sort through it. This paid off very well for this guy so don't hate the beach sweeper just use him if you can. Best to all, Mike.

 

[Roman44]

The rake in use at a state park I detect at, only levels out the sand and makes it look nice. I hope they don't invest in the unit that actually cleans the sand.

 

[werewolf]

Answer my own question I most certainly did!

I hit the beach today whilst a sweeper was in action, and followed along behind him. Seems most of the coins are left behind as I found quite a few - so that's good news. The sweeper also 'fluffs' up the sand and levels it out, making it easy to detect and very simple to trace your own footsteps in the freshly raked sand.

This seemed to be an older machine which mainly collected the larger rubbish - observing it in action it was plain to see that the tines were too fine to pick up the majority of coins.

 

[Wet and Dry]

They do not like heavy stuff. One day I was working behind a cleaner and I saw a watch and a cell phone fall out of it. It does not like beer bottles either cause the operator kept stopping to pick them up. I have found lots a clad rings and stuff on a beach that has been cleaned. Also if you can find out where they dump the cleaner and take a look there too.

 

[doindadiggin]

Hi all over here in oz we have a variety of beach cleaners most just rake up the weed and cans mostly surface rubbish,one morning i was at the gold coast and the beach cleaner is going about 30mph and not swerving for people i placed a fag packet on the sand and pressed it into the sand just showing the top ,then speedy gonzales ripped over it and it was still there so. at my favorite beach the machine is much more sophisticated it has a bar with thousands of wire fingers spinning flat out and throws everything onto a 4ft wide mesh belt which shakes and goes uphill into a bin, one day the operator dumped all the sand and small items and told me to go look when i looked i only found one coin so they are not a threat to detectorists ,all this does is smash any watches or chains to bits ,but the real downside to these machines is that they break any glass bottles that are just under the sand with there wheels .terry in oz

 

[Roscue2]

There are many different types of these machines. Some of them are mini factories towed by tractors, while others are just rakes that skim the surface.

 

[Steve from Ohio]

Many of the ones used on Florida beaches can get down to almost 10 inches. It can really fluff up the beach sand. It makes metal detecting on the beach very frustrating to say the least. Your best bet is to hit the beaches very early in the morning after

The best way to hunt is in the water. Yes it is tougher.....and you cannot detect in the water on many Florida beaches because of the Mel Fisher situation. I found some good finds on the Gulf side but it is a lot of work and scooping is just a plain pain in the butt.

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

went to beach today, i noticed they had just cleaned beach with a machine, i thought wow, what a bummer, might not be much, beach was getting packed with people,we stayed for a few hours, we found a really nice silver and emerald ring.. about 4.50 in clad so it was a good day id say....were going out tomorrow and see what we can find ..